San Francisco Supervisors balk at harder limits for Airbnb

San Francisco is really wrestling with how short-term rentals affect the city as a whole: are they a helpful way for citizens to get income, or do they add insult to the injury that is the city’s absurd housing situation?

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which includes mayor Ed Lee, met last night to assess two amendments to the city’s current short-term rental laws: one would put a hard 75-day limit on all short-term rentals in the city, while the other would not introduce a hard cap. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Supervisors voted to enact the more lenient one.

The most salient part of the legislature passed, which was initially crafted in part by Lee, is the development of the Office of Short-Term Rental Administration and Enforcement, which will help keep tabs on whether Airbnb hosts are keeping to those limits.

And those limits remain relatively lax: the law enacted in February places a 90-day cap on owners who rent out their whole houses on places like Airbnb. Owners who continue to live in the home and rent out an extra room are not subject to limits.

Now, it’s up to the people to decide the fate of short-term rentals: residents will vote in November on a ballot measure that would restrict all short-term housing rentals to just 75 days per year.